Morning Roundup 5/19/14

Donald Miller—who wrote about cussing preachers 15 years ago—has an important word. It's interesting that this is still an issue as we saw it at the Exponential Conference few weeks ago. And, yes, it makes you look immature and unprofessional.

Just last week I was scheduled to give a keynote presentation to a group of officers from a multi-billion dollar corporation. My job was to explain how story worked in screenplays and then explain how major corporations were using Hollywood plot structures in their marketing campaigns.

This is a talk I've given more than few times and it always goes well. But one part of the talk was bugging me.

You see, in order to give the keynote I break down the movie Moneyball, showing 7 critical scenes in which specific movement happens in the plot. All that's fine, but what was bugging me was one of the scenes had profanity in it.

Normally, this wouldn't bother me. We all hear profanity at the movies and on television all the time. But in a room full of executives? Would there be consequences? Would anybody be offended?

Luckily, I happened to be having lunch in the hotel restaurant when I noticed one of the executives sitting across the room, reading the paper. I stopped over and sat down and we caught up on life, then I asked him what he thought about showing that scene.

He was grateful I asked. Even though he thought nobody would be truly offended, he wondered whether there was any way to cut that word out. I told him I could find out and do everything I could and he felt that would be best. As we talked, though, we uncovered the real reason I shouldn't take the chance. And here's what it was:

Showing the scene risked making me, the presenter, look immature and unprofessional.

It turns out it wasn't the offensiveness of the word that would have gotten me into trouble, it would have been the fact I was willing to play fast and loose with proper business etiquette, which would have made me look bad.

Since Francis seemed to be the polar opposite, they had every reason to hope the clampdown would be lifted. After all, in his first six months in office, he managed to tighten the reins on extravagant priests and even seemed to bend on gays in the priesthood. Why not lighten up on the nuns, too?

But the sisters, it seems, were dead wrong to think they might get a fair shake under Francis. In what is being viewed as an even stronger clampdown, the Vatican has essentially warned the nuns that they must reform their organization and mend their errant ways or risk further scrutiny by the Holy See. In scathingremarks at an April 30 meeting, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, criticized the nuns' choice of speakers to address their conferences, their leadership awardees, and the lack of spiritual guidance in their work.

And lest anyone assume the strong language was a leftover from Benedict's days, Müller made sure the nuns knew Francis heartily endorsed the criticism. "What the Holy Father proposes is a vision of religious life and particularly of the role of conferences of major superiors which in many ways is a positive articulation of issues which come across as concerns in the doctrinal assessment," he said. "I urge you to reread the Holy Father's remarks and to make them a point of discussion with members of your board as well."

The current "buy up" of Christian publishers by secular companies gets complicated—note how the story references the evangelical, Catholic, and progressive lines and how they intersect (or do not). Expect more stories like this in the future.

A leading Christian book publisher has resigned its membership in the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) after a dispute over God and the Gay Christian, a new book published by an affiliated imprint.

In a letter to board members, NRB president and CEO Jerry Johnson said that employees of WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, the evangelical division of Penguin Random House, worked on the book. The book, which argues that same-gender sex is not sinful, was published by Convergent Books, a 16-month-old Penguin Random House line that describes itself as "publishing books for progressive and mainline Christians who demand an open, inclusive, and culturally engaged exploration of faith."

"Unfortunately, while the Multnomah Publishing Group is separate from Convergent, as a legal and business entity, the staff of the Multnomah and Convergent operations are substantially the same," Johnson wrote. "Most notably, Steven W. Cobb serves as the chief publishing executive for both groups. … Other Christian workers do so as well. … This issue comes down to NRB members producing unbiblical material, regardless of the label under which they do it."

Cobb also oversees Image, Penguin Random House's Roman Catholic imprint that falls under the Crown Publishing Group division with WaterBrook Multnomah and Convergent. The Christian divisions are located in the same Colorado Springs offices. Crown and Penguin Random House are based in New York City.

"I asked them to reconsider and end the practice of having Christian workers from their publishing house work on Convergent projects," Johnson wrote. "They declined to do so at this time and asked how we would respond. I told them that if they wanted to remain NRB associate members, I would have to refer the matter to our Ethics Committee for review, or they could agree to resign their membership. They agreed to resign immediately."

Musician and author Carlos Whittaker joined me in studio to discuss living his life and faith publicly through his social media presence and popular blog.

Dr. John Sorensen, President of Evangelism Explosion International, a ministry that has trained millions of Christians around the world to share Christ, discusses the state of evangelism, research on evangelism trends, as well as myths and methods of evangelism.